I guess if Aquaman‘s archenemy is the biggest black supervillain, then there probably is a problem: Vince Moore has a pretty interesting piece up over at Comics Waiting Room about the dearth of great black supervillains, and he casts about for the biggest names—Black Manta, Moses Magnum—while wondering why there aren’t more and better black villains. Is Apocalypse black? Does he count? I certainly can’t think of any others; do you guys have any suggestions? Anyway, it’s an interesting question, and an interesting piece.
Oh wow, that’s Batman’s happy face?: Here’s another particularly strong panel from The Daily Batman. Do visit it often, and then I won’t feel compelled to link to it in, like, every one of these link round-ups.
Christopher Bird Is Evil: Bird gives Mark Waid and Peter Krause’s Irredeemable the “Honesty In Comic Book Covers” treatment. If you haven’t seen any of these before, do click on previous ones.
Oh thank God: I realize I may be the only comic book reader who thinks of the next Spider-Man movie as the next Kirsten Dunst movie instead of the next Spider-Man movie or next Sam Raimi movie, so maybe you won’t be as excited by this headline as I am, but, “Kirsten Dunst Returning For Spider-Man 4.” Huzzah!
“It’s just story, and it moves, and I can get the characters from the way they act”: One of the best barometers by which to gauge whether or not what you might think is a good comic book is actually a good comic book or not is to check and see what Comic Book Virgin Nina Stone thinks of it. Like, what does someone who didn’t even know that Dick Grayson used to be Robin think of the last week’s Batman and Robin #1?
I love that I find out in this issue that not only did Nightwing become Batman, but that he used to be Robin, too. Now I’m sure you all know that. But I didn’t. I’ve read some Nightwing comics, but all I can remember is that the art was kind of boring and he was always hang gliding in New York. But it’s written in so well here, it seems to come up naturally and move right along within the story. This little formula looks like it’s going to make for dramatic tension at its best…
I’m excited to keep up with this one. That doesn’t mean I’ll be reading it regularly, but I could see myself asking somebody about it after they read it.
Much more at the link.
June 10th, 2009 at 8:58 am
In regards to the lack of black super-villains, I think it is due to both racism and political correctness.
On one hand, through the early 70s there were no black super-villains because there were no black characters period. But since then, I think that most creators don’t want to walk into the minefield of stereotyping. “Oh, he’s black, therefore he’s gotta be a villain, right?”
I don’t think it’s possible to create a black super-villain without it meaning something negative to somebody.
June 10th, 2009 at 9:52 am
I’ve never had a problem with Dunst as MJ… Honestly. She doesn’t bother me in the slightest. In fact, I think she’s awfully cute. No, she’s not the glamorous super-model that I guess MJ’s really supposed to be. But so what? I found her believable as “the girl next door” and she and Tobey M’s Peter Parker are a good fit (so long as the writing for them doesn’t totally suck). They look like a couple. Oh, and I wouldn’t kick her out of bed for eating crackers either…
Anyhow, given the myriad problems Spider-Man 3 had, MJ/Dunst is the least of their problems.
June 10th, 2009 at 10:55 am
There is a really cool Samaritan villain in ASTRO CITY that is black. That I can’t remember his name at the moment probably helps make the point, though.
June 10th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Wow, I’ve somehow managed to avoid Nina Stone my whole life. Apparently she’s a known quantity?
Anyway, after reading (I’ll be honest: skimming, after about a paragraph of actual reading) her review, I’ll try my hardest to avoid her my whole life again.
June 10th, 2009 at 11:30 am
I’m with Mr Wesley that people are probably scared of being called racist to have a white billionaire industrialist superhero knocking around a black villain.
I remember a few years ago when Thor killed Goliath in Civil War, Millar got a little bit of heat for that. More sensible people rolled their eyes at such accusation, but there’s no telling what people will infer in any given situation especially once race is involved.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
If you’re scared of being called racist, or having someone suggest you did something racist, then you shouldn’t be writing anyone but people of your own race. A clear lack of confidence in your own abilities means that you won’t write anything worth reading. “It might make somebody mad!” is a dumb excuse.
Nina’s Batman & Robin review was probably her best yet. It’s nice to see a genuine outsider’s perspective, someone who isn’t immersed in these funnybooks 24/7, and I think Nina nailed a lot of what’s enjoyable about the book, particularly in terms of Damian and Dick’s relationship.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Man, no one brought up Alex Wilder yet? That was an awesome black villain! (Runaways). But yeah, he’s the only other one that came to mind right off the top of my head. Strange, seriously.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I believe the Spider-Man villain Tombstone is supposed to be black, but it’s hard to tell because his skin is bleached white or something. Comics!
June 10th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Is that the Infidel, Kevin?
June 10th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Yeah, Simon! You got it! The character design and background wowed me from just reading summaries about him. I haven’t been able to track down a copy of his appearance in the book yet, though.
June 10th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
@ Lucas: Alex (and his parents for that matter) is a good call! I stopped reading Runaways (I bought the collected digests for m daughter and we both read them) after Vaughan’s run ended.
I want to get back on, but I’ve read such mixed opinions about what’s come since. Moore’s run has been slammed byy almost everyone, and I only recently learned that Whedon (briefly) was writing Runaways too. New author coming on, I know, but I probably need to read everything in between to know what’s happening. Right?
June 10th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Shaun: Whedon added a character during his run, and Moore knocked one off the board (didn’t die, but who knows how long that character will be gone).
I won’t spoil anything for you if you do decide to catch up for Immonen’s run which I’m looking forward to. Her Hellcat mini was insanity wrapped in a whole lotta fun.
June 10th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Joe, thanks for the update… I’ll have to try to get the stuff I missed in whatever form they’re collected in (assuming any of it has been collected yet). Thanks for not spoiling anything either! I really enjoyed the surprises I had reading Vaughan’s run.
Sounds like the major character Vaughan killed off is still dead, even though we saw a future version of her at one point… I’m still hoping she gets resurrected, somehow.
Here’s a question: The crossovers with Young Avengers (Civil War, Secret Invasion). Necessary to read? Even if they’re not necessary, are they worth it?
June 11th, 2009 at 4:58 am
@ Shaun, they weren’t necessary…but they were a fun compare and contrast of the 2 teams…plus you get a WAY BETTER interpretation of Marvel Boy than you do in Dark Avengers IMO (in the civil war crossover)
as far as black supervillains go, this why I had high hopes for the return of Milestone and the Black Panther book (when Christopher Priest was writing it). However both had stalled and gone to cliche-ville….
I’m sorry, there are folks who are comic fans that DON’T know Dick Grayson was Robin??? Now I heard everything….
June 11th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Kevin, the Infidel was featured in the Astro City Special “the Eagle & the Mountain”, which is aces, better even than the nothing-to-sneeze at Supersonic & Beautie one-shots.
As for other great black supervillains (and no, Apocalypse doesn’t count: En Sabah Nur was a light-skinned Egyptian)…I can think of tons who have the potential, but none that would qualify right now except for BARRACUDA. Recently created (by Garth Ennis), offbeat & distinct personality, had his own miniseries, appeared alongside the Punisher in XXL (trying to whack Eminem) – an easy transfer to the mainstream Marvel Universe, if you ask me. So far I’ve found all of his appearances pretty frakkin’ hilarious, so I hope they do more with the character.
Also, Russ Burlingame? You capital-S Suck for having not heard of Nina (and, I assume, Tucker) Stone. Not only is their The Factual Opinion a must-read for the discerning comics fan, they even got interviewed by Blog@Newsarama sometime in late 2008. Don’t think I’ll ever be reading any interviews with you, buddy-boy.